lipgloss
by rosenknoppen
Summary: He was just checking.


"Ahhh, it's really cold outside!"

Sasuke glanced up from reading a newspaper as Sakura shivered out of her coat, hanging it by the line of hooks beside the door. She shrugged off her boots and padded on the hardwood floor on her socks, heading for the kitchen of Sasuke's small apartment.

Sasuke flipped another page of the newspaper, barely hearing the soft clinking of earthenware on his counter as Sakura fumbled in his kitchen. Moments later the sweet aroma of hot chocolate drifted in the room, and Sakura sat next to him with a white soup mug nestled in her cupped hands.

She took a sip and sighed as the sweet liquid warmed her inside. "This is really good!" she exclaimed, turning to him to give him a smile.

He did not bother to open the lights in the living room, and only the orange glow of the lamp on his left side and the lights she had turned on in the kitchen were on. This gave Sakura's skin a healthy glow, and when his eyes trailed down her lips that were still glistening from the drink, he noted that her lips seemed to be three times its normal shade of red.

Before the length of his stare could be interpreted as ogling, he shifted them back to the tiny prints on the newspaper.

He felt Sakura snuggled deeper into the couch, bending her knees and leaning closer to him. The warmth of the hot chocolate radiated on his cheek, and from his peripheral vision he could see his reflection on the mug's surface.

"Want a sip?" she offered, and she was close enough for him to see the dark specks in her deep green eyes.

"You know I don't like sweets," he declined, flipping another page of the newspaper.

Sakura retrieved the mug and pouted, and he glanced at her lips once again. They _were _a lot redder than they used to be, and he let his mind muse if she was using some lipstick of some sort, or was it, what do they call it, lip-gloss? He was not sure which one was which, he was not a woman to concern himself with the complicated things they put on their faces.

Sakura was not one to put on a make-up though. He could remember her telling him and Naruto that she found it troublesome to wear one. Was today a special occasion that she bothered herself to put on lip-gloss? They were just having what she called "Friday movie nights", and they had done it so many times with Naruto that it was not something too special. And he could not recall her wearing anything on during those times.

Sasuke coughed a bit. It was not like he was looking at her all the time, he was just a first-rate observer, is all.

"I don't get why you have a stack of hot chocolates, yet you don't like sweets," Sakura mused loudly.

"You drink them," Sasuke pointed out, turning to the next page, indifferent once again.

Sakura shrugged in agreement, swallowing another mouthful of her hot drink. "I'm starting to think you have them just because of me," she told him offhandedly.

Sasuke peeked at her again. She was downing the contents of the soup mug, and her lower lip was glued to the smooth surface of the earthenware, a dark shade of rubicund flesh against the pale mug.

He could not seem to take his eyes off that plump flesh, still wondering why its shade deepened. But why would he care if Sakura was wearing make-up or not, such as a lip-gloss? It was just a simple instrument of pigmentation, as far as he knew, and nothing out of the ordinary.

He shook his head a little. Why was he troubling himself with something so trivial anyways. It was not like he was intrigued or anything.

Sakura sighed in pleasure. The hot chocolate was doing wonders in warming her, especially her lips which had been bothering her since that morning. It did not look dry at all, yet whenever she smiled or did anything to stretch her lips, they felt as though they would crack anytime. It was annoying her all day, especially since it felt like all her veins had bundled up in her lips and the blood was running on them a hundred times faster than normal.

"Is that the reason?" she asked him.

Sasuke tilted his head to where she was, slightly (mentally) taken aback by her innocent question. Her lips were on the mug again, gulping down more of the drink. When she finished she looked at him, waiting for his answer.

Her lips were burning red against her complexion. And unconsciously his eyes trailed down to them. Did she really put on lip-gloss to make her lips like that? But then, this was Sakura, and Sakura very rarely wears make-up.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura called. Worried, she leaned in closer.

It would not hurt to ask right?

She licked her lips unintentionally, and Sasuke closed the gap between them. He let his lips glide over hers, feeling its softness with only the sweet hot chocolate as an aftertaste.

But he was a man of few words, and besides, proof was better than claims.

Sakura was dazed, and she could only look at him in confusion when he leaned back once again on his seat.

"Wha–?"

"Just checking," he simply said, going back to reading the newspaper. It was not too long before he felt the pressure of Sakura's body pressed to his side. She was giving him a confused look, but disregarded whatever it was he was checking and just finished up what was left of her hot chocolate.

Sasuke flipped another page of the newspaper. So she was not wearing any lip-gloss after all.

❧**. lip-gloss**


End file.
